Finding the Perfect Real Estate Agent
There’s very little that’s more discouraging than listing your home with what some in the industry term "secret agents". You know the type. They take your listing, put it on the MLS service, and then they must go into hiding because they never surface again until the listing comes up for renewal, at which time they call and brazenly ask you for an extension. Just how did you come up with that real estate agent anyway? She was probably a referral from Aunt Mary or she was your next door neighbor’s cousin’s hairdresser’s ex-husband’s second wife. So what went wrong? Don’t blame the real estate agent. Blame yourself for not doing your homework before hiring her.
Real estate agents comes in all shapes and sizes (figuratively speaking of course):
young / old
male / female;
part-time / full-time
experienced /newbie
hungry /complacent;
ramping up / ramping down
smart / not so
educated / winging it
successful / hoping to be
You get the picture. So where do you begin? After all, one size doesn’t fit all. You should start by analyzing what type of real estate agent is best suited to your particular property, and that begins by determining the probable type of buyer that will be attracted to your home. If you’re selling a 1 BR condo in a yuppie complex, you’d be well advised to avoid an real estate agent who is older, complacent, ramping down, etc. Because even though that real estate agent may be smart, educated and successful, he isn’t traveling in the right circles to find himself associating with members of the potential buyer pool. LIkewise, if you’re selling a multi-million dollar property, you’d want an real estate agent that has been in that game before. And in a buyer’s market, an real estate agent needs every edge he can get in order to promote his listings. The days of taking a listing, placing it on the Multiple Listing Service and showing up at the closing for a check, are over. Real estate agents need to proactively look for buyers and often look within their social circles.
OK, so once you’ve established the profile of the perfect listing agent, where do you go from there? One thing you should not do is to call a local real estate office and hope that you get the perfect real estate agent on the phone. Not gonna happen. What you should do is a little homework before you make any call to any agency. Look at your local newspapers, or surf the web for house listings in your area. Chances are you’ll come up with the same names over and over. These would be your strongest listings agents. And of course, their ads come with pictures so you can begin to identify their profiles.
Make a list of those real estate agents and then begin to call their office managers or brokers. Without revealing the names you have already come up with, ask the manager for his/her recommendation as to a strong listing agent for your property. They may give you one or two names, but if they don’t give you the names that you already extracted from your research, you should ask them why. Believe it or not, the real estate business is very political, and you’re asking the manager to give you the name of someone that may end up making $10,000- $20,000 or more on your listing! If the manager has a hidden agenda (and many of them do), you may not be getting the best recommendation.
Once you have gathered 1 name from at least 3 different agencies, you should interview them all and ask the following questions:
How long have you been licensed? (Important but not critical)
How long have you been with this agency? (does the real estate agent hop from office to office, if so, why)
Are you a Realtor? (member of the National Association of Realtors)
What has been your production both last year and YTD?
Do you have a written marketing plan? (is it flexible, is it guaranteed in writing, can I see it?)
What is your commission? (how is it split between agencies, if co-broked?)
Will you reduce the commission if you sell it on your own?
Can I sell the house on my own without owing your office a commission?
What is the length of your contract?
How many listings do you currently have? (how long have they been on the market?)
What do you know specifically about my neighborhood that would cause you to encourage buyers to buy in this area?
What is your average Market Time for your personal listings? (how does it compare to MLS average?)
What is the absorption rate in my town? (the number of months it would take to sell all of the current inventory if no new homes were listed)
What would you do to my home to make it more salable?
What is your average ratio between listing price and selling price?
Do you have any buyers in mind for my home at this time?
What additional training have you had other than you licensing course? (shows commitment)
Who covers for you if you are on vacation or are unavailable for any other reason?
What price would you suggest for my home and do you have substantiating information?
What can you tell me about the current real estate trends in my town/neighborhood?
What else can you tell me about the way you do business that I haven’t asked about?
If you ask most of these questions to 3 good Realtors, you’ll be able to narrow it down to 1 or 2. If undecided, you should consider the one whose personality is most appealing to you. Remember, selling a home is a cooperative effort. You, the seller, are equally as involved with the process as is the real estate agent and you will be interacting with that real estate agent 2-3 times each week. Because of that, in fact, most good real estate agents will be interviewing you at the same time you are interviewing them. While sellers are often saddled with incompetent real estate agents, many real estate agents are equally burdened with high-maintenance sellers which they would rather not be dealing with. So be mindful of your method of "interrogation". Try to keep your conversation light and inquisitive in nature rather than intimidating. If you don’t, you just may watch your perfect real estate agent fold up his literature and say "Thanks for your time, good luck finding an real estate agent!"
Ginger Blomberg is a 25 veteran of the real estate business. She is the Broker-Owner of a Keller Williams Realty office in Stratford CT, and the Owner/Director of the State Academy of Real Estate.
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Last update: December 23, 2008
